Houston Panel Discussion

9/24/2015

The Writers' League is excited to host this free & open to the public panel discussion in the Houston area.

The label "writer" can often be associated with a solitary existence -- a lone figure bent over a computer or notebook for hours at a stretch, at a desk for one, in a room of one's own.

But, while alone time for writing is important, it's also important to remember that there's a rich, diverse and active community that exists for writers. And there are myriad ways that we as writers can participate in that literary community; ways we can connect with each other to establish our creative tribe.

Our four distinguished panelists will offer thoughts and guidance regarding the ways we can support and uplift each other, engage in the larger literary community (not always easy for the shy and reserved among us), adhere to some do's and don't's on social media and elsewhere, approach giving and receiving criticism (especially with regard to reviewing other writers' books), and just generally behave ourselves, play nice, and make lasting connections.

While RSVPing ahead of time isn't required for admission, if you know you'll be joining us on the 24th please take a few minutes to click on the RSVP so that we'll have an idea of how many people to expect. Much appreciated!

Hope to see you in Houston on September 24th! Any questions? Call us at 512-499-8914 or email wlt@writersleague.org.

This event will be moderated by WLT Executive Director Becka Oliver and our distinguished panelists will be...

Amy Hertz, a new arrival in Houston, has held editorial and publishing positions at Penguin, Random House, HarperCollins, Henry Holt, The Huffington Post and Barnes and Noble. She was a founding editor of Riverhead Books, Huffington Post Books and Huffington Post Divorce. Bestsellers to her credit include The Universe in a Single Atom (The Dalai Lama), Eat Right 4 Your Type (blood type diet), The Art of Happiness (The Dalai Lama), The Female Brain (Louann Brizendine, MD, UCSF Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic founder), Kitchen Table Wisdom (Rachel Remen, MD), Anger and No Death, No Fear (Thich Nhat Hanh), The Jew in the Lotus (Rodger Kamenetz), and The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying (Sogyal Rinpoche). She has written for O, The Oprah Magazine (included in Best of O 2007), Glamour, Yoga Journal and The Shambhala Sun.

Rich Levy is a poet and, since 1995, has served as executive director of Inprint(inprinthouston.org), a literary arts nonprofit in Houston, Texas. He earned his MFA at the Iowa Writers Workshop; his poems, essays, and reviews have appeared (or will soon appear) in various publications, including Boulevard, Callaloo, The Florida Review, The Hopkins Review, Houston Chronicle, Pool, The Texas Observer, and others. His poetry collection Why Me? was published in 2009, and in 2011 Houston Press named him Houston’s “best poet.” He is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and serves on the advisory boards of Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Art, Catastrophic Theatre, HSPVA Friends (High School for the Performing and Visual Arts), and Voices Breaking Boundaries; the film committee of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston; the Houston Grand Opera community outreach committee (HGOco); and the editorial committee of CITE magazine (published by the Rice Design Alliance). He is a jazz obsessive and has raised three children and several cats and dogs.

Benjamin Rybeck is the marketing director at Brazos Bookstore in Houston, and his debut novel, The Sadness, is forthcoming June 2016 from Unnamed Press. His fiction has received honorable mention in The Best American Nonrequired Reading and The Pushcart Prize Anthology, and he writes features and interviews for Kirkus Reviews. He received his MFA from the University of Arizona, where he taught for several years. He currently teaches fiction for Inprint.

A passionate traveler and science writer, Kayt Sukel has no problem tackling interesting (and often taboo) subjects spanning love, sex, neuroscience, travel, and healthcare technology. Her work has appeared in publications like National Geographic Traveler, the Washington Post, Pacific Standard, the Atlantic Monthly, New Scientist and GOOD. She is the author of the critically acclaimed This is Your Brain on Sex (Simon & Schuster, 2013), an irreverent and funny tome that takes on the age-old question, “What is love?” from a neurobiological perspective, and the forthcoming The Art of Risk (National Geographic, 2016), a look at the science of risk-taking in and out of the laboratory. Kayt lives outside Houston, Texas, and frequently overshares on Twitter as @kaytsukel.